FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure for loading and unloading an optical disk (medium) in an optical disk apparatus (medium processing apparatus) 400 provided in a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a PC).
As illustrated in FIG. 13, the optical disk apparatus 400 includes a medium tray 430 that receives a medium (e.g., a CD-ROM), an eject button 440 used for opening or closing medium tray 430, and a forced eject hole 450 used for forcefully open the medium tray 430. In this PC, when a user presses the eject button 440, the medium tray 430 is opened, the user places a medium on the opened medium tray 430 and presses the eject button 440 again. In response, the medium tray 430 is closed to load the medium placed on the medium tray 430 to the optical disk apparatus 400. The PC then processes the medium loaded to the optical disk apparatus 400, such as reading recorded data, videos, and audios from the medium.
In the PC having an internal optical disk apparatus 400, when the PC is powered off, i.e., when the operating system (OS) is shut down and supply of power from a power supply unit provided within the PC is stopped, no power is supplied any more to the optical disk apparatus 400. Specifically, when the PC is powered off, no power is supplied to a motor (not illustrated) that opens and closes the medium tray 430 in the optical disk apparatus 400. Therefore, the medium tray 430 never opens when the user presses the eject button 440.
Typically, in order to check whether or not a medium is left, i.e., whether or not a medium is in the optical disk apparatus 400, after a PC is powered off, a user or any other person, such as a third party, of the PC (hereinafter, simply referred to as the “user”) employs the following technique (i) or (ii), for example.
(i) The user powers on the PC again, and after the PC (OS) is started up, the user presses the eject button 440 to open the medium tray 430 to check for a medium.
(ii) The user inserts an elongated pin into the forced eject hole 450 for forcefully opening the medium tray 430 to check for a medium.
As related art, there are techniques where a user is notified that a medium is in a drive, if the media is detected upon a power-off of the computer by software, thereby preventing the medium from being left in the drive.    Patent Reference 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-322808    Patent Reference 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H09-34365
In the above technique (i), the user has to wait until the PC is started up before opening the medium tray 430 to check for a medium, and the thereafter user has to power down the PC again, which is somewhat burdensome.
In the above technique (ii), the user has to find a pin to be inserted to the forced eject hole 450, and finding such a pin requires some time and efforts.
Further, the technique (ii) is unavailable if no pin is found or the optical disk apparatus 400 has no forced eject hole 450. In such a case, the technique (i) is the solo option.
The techniques (i) and (ii) may become particularly very time-consuming and burdensome if a user is looking for a missing medium which is left in an optical disk apparatus 400 in one of a lot of (e.g., dozens or more) PCs in a computer room in school or any other facility.
The above-described technique where software notifies a user that a medium is left when the media is detected, is available only when the PC is operating, i.e., the PC is powered on. Hence, once the PC is powered off, no notification is made.
In addition to optical disk apparatuses 400 provided in PCs, similar issues arise for optical disk apparatuses 400 provided in a wide variety of other apparatuses (information processing apparatuses), such as audio and visual (AV) appliances and car navigation systems.